Glebe English as an Additional Language (EAL) Subject Knowledge Hub

The Glebe English as an Additional Language (EAL) Hub seeks to deepen teachers’ knowledge and confidence in improving oracy, literacy and writing skills for EAL pupils. In part, this is about developing teachers’ understanding of effective EAL pedagogy and practice. It also focuses on improving understanding of first and second language acquisition and the issues facing multi-cultural learners.

The project is delivered through a series of termly workshops, led by an academic expert from the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London. In addition to these termly meetings, participating teachers are organised into four regional hubs in order to share good practice. Each hub is made up of three or four schools, supported by an EAL practitioner from the Glebe Knowledge Centre. Hub meetings take place between workshops and allow teachers to share and embed their learning. For participating teachers, the project builds confidence by developing understanding of the needs of EAL learners. The project hopes that these teachers will support an overall growth in school and regional expertise. Ultimately, this will result in EAL pupils growing in confidence and making accelerated progress in literacy, numeracy and writing.

To get involved -

I have been teaching at Byron Court Primary School for three years, and have been grateful to be part of the Glebe EAL Subject Knowledge Hub project. The regular meetings at the IOE and our Brent hub meetings have really developed my overall confidence in teaching EAL learners. This confidence has been evident in my teaching and planning. I have found the sharing of resources and ideas the key to my overall development within this project. In particular, I have used wordless books. These books have developed both my learner’s confidence and self-esteem. Throughout the project, the children involved have developed a ‘can do’ attitude and with this their language acquisition has grown. It has been a really worthwhile process that has helped me to understand what Action Research involves. Furthermore, sharing these ideas with my fellow colleagues has helped their overall classroom practice. I really hope that there will be opportunities to continue these network meetings, as the skills acquired have been really beneficial to the staff and children of Byron Court.

- Suzie Rook, Year 4 Class Teacher and SEN/EAL Leader, Byron Court Primary School